Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

601–610 of 1001 posts

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#601

Post by MathCodeLove »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #593

As a non-American I found Heather Cox-Richardson's recent substack newsletter post [1] to be useful in understanding how the US has got to this point. She's a history professor at Boston College and she does a good job of describing how gun ownership and control came to be (intentionally) politicised, and how the NRA's role has changed over time. Honestly, I don't see how the US is ever going to dig itself out of thi…

It's difficult to take that article with more than a grain of salt when there's clear political bias and a lack of proper sourcing from the start. Of course political bias is inevitable, but to claim that our gun laws are the result of a takeover by "a minority of radical extermists" is ridiculous.

Then when referencing hard numbers and talking about the influence the NRA may have had, she doesn't back that up with anything. Her "notes" are mostly other highly opinionated articles. Had she followed any form of standard or proper notation[1] it'd be easier to believe her. But usually when people fail to make their sources easily available it's because they don't have them/they are low quality.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources]

Edit:

Just to add another comment to this. Typically when someone claims that something which is supported by a large percentage or even the majority of a given population is the result of "extremism", they themselves are like the extremists, for better or for worse.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#602

Post by MrMan »

rajin444 wrote: post #61

US Population growth of around 100-120 mil from the 60s/70s onward due to primarily immigration has never been done before. No ruler who cares about their people would attempt such a thing - cultures must be joined slowly and carefully. American culture started dying right around then. Shootings like this are a side effect. Maybe things will get better, but current trends appear to signal the opposite. I’m genuinely…

I dont have the power of down vote but I am glad I dont because I am required to call you out in text for being a disgusting white nationalist racist, and I realize you are no longer a fringe minority. I hope you change your opinion on these matters but the prevalence of such views has caused me to give up hope. All my ancestors who came here were immigrants and they did some terrible things to establish themselves. There is no good American culture, its a myth. More new people give us an advantage over countries that are very homogeneous.

In short, we should literally be recruiting whomever is willing to. come here - people are an asset, not a liablility. From the most basic economic point of view, a country with a string positive growth rate has an advantage. But I could go on.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#603

Post by makomk »

rswail wrote: post #588
cypress66 wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As tragic as these events may be, the probability of your kids dying to a school shooting is still incredibly low, and a few orders of magnitude less than car accidents. Doing some quick math, it seems like it's around 100 to 1000 times more likely that some kid dies to some accident than a mass shooting. But people don't seem to worry 1000 times more about these accidents than school shootings. And it would actually…

On that reasoning, all of the "lockdowns" and "active shooter drills" and all the other bullshit that the US makes its children undertake in school are a complete waste of time. Are you seriously trying to argue that school shootings don't happen often enough to try to stop them? Or that society can't do two things (reduce accidental deaths and reduce mass murder) at the same time? The rationalization of an insane gu…

From what I can tell, Americans that are opposed to gun restrictions generally also think that "active shooter drills" are indeed a waste of time that just traumatize children for no real benefit other than the political gain of people that want to ban guns. So you're probably pushing against an open door with that argument.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#604

Post by spicymaki »

neartheplain wrote: post #530
beloch wrote: post #83

Canada is the U.S.'s neighbour and is probably closer, culturally, than any other nation. Gun ownership is also high in Canada. In terms of guns per capita, the U.S. is #1 by a long shot, but Canada is #7 [1]. In Canada, guns owned per capita is one third of what it is in the U.S.. Canada also has mass shootings. The annual deaths from mass shootings per capita in Canada is 0.032, which is about one third that of the…

>Canada is the U.S.'s neighbour and is probably closer, culturally, than any other nation. Your point about cultural similarity holds true mainly for descendants of European immigrants. The shared culture here isn't just Marvel movies but values passed down among families from the Old Country like a Christian moral framework, Anglo-American law, the Protestant work ethic, Puritan attidues towards sex, etc. If you bre…

You are dodging the issue with white nationalist talking points. The issue at hand is not the black murder rate. The discussion is should we restrict assault weapons, limit access to who can purchase firearms (via licensing, safety training, etc.), limit ammo capacity, etc in order to reduce mass shootings.

Texas has a strong gun culture, Christian culture, NRA approved and funded government, extremely lax gun control, concealed carry, and children are still dying needlessly. Texas removed firearm permit requirements last year making it easier to obtain assault weapons.

Australia undertook strict gun control measures nationwide and essentially eliminated mass shooting deaths.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#605

Post by stanislavb »

beloch wrote: post #83

Canada is the U.S.'s neighbour and is probably closer, culturally, than any other nation. Gun ownership is also high in Canada. In terms of guns per capita, the U.S. is #1 by a long shot, but Canada is #7 [1]. In Canada, guns owned per capita is one third of what it is in the U.S.. Canada also has mass shootings. The annual deaths from mass shootings per capita in Canada is 0.032, which is about one third that of the…

In Australia it’s illegal to carry a pocket knife in public unless you are a chef or need it for doing your job…

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#606

Post by scotty79 »

beloch wrote: post #83

Canada is the U.S.'s neighbour and is probably closer, culturally, than any other nation. Gun ownership is also high in Canada. In terms of guns per capita, the U.S. is #1 by a long shot, but Canada is #7 [1]. In Canada, guns owned per capita is one third of what it is in the U.S.. Canada also has mass shootings. The annual deaths from mass shootings per capita in Canada is 0.032, which is about one third that of the…

It's as if presence of sufficiently many guns (or maybe rather ammo) in society enables mass shootings.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#607

Post by spicymaki »

_moof wrote: post #503
HomeGear wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now run the numbers on gun deaths. Chicago has 30+ a weekend at times.

Why'd you pick Chicago? Nine other cities in the U.S. have higher homicide rates.

Chicago crime is a racially charged dog whistle for white nationalists.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#608

Post by thorin »

stanislavb wrote: post #605
beloch wrote: post #83

Canada is the U.S.'s neighbour and is probably closer, culturally, than any other nation. Gun ownership is also high in Canada. In terms of guns per capita, the U.S. is #1 by a long shot, but Canada is #7 [1]. In Canada, guns owned per capita is one third of what it is in the U.S.. Canada also has mass shootings. The annual deaths from mass shootings per capita in Canada is 0.032, which is about one third that of the…

In Australia it’s illegal to carry a pocket knife in public unless you are a chef or need it for doing your job…

Same in the UK. You have to give a good excuse. Cue 1000s on bushcraft forums justifying their massive knife collection...

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#609

Post by scotty79 »

librish wrote: post #89

It's time we start legislating based on empirical evidence instead of lofty ideals. Yes, if everyone was responsible perhaps it would be OK for all of us to own firearms. But so many people are utterly irresponsible, and guns make that irresponsibility lethal. People should safely store their fire-arms, but they don't and guns get stolen and sold illegally, or used by their teenage child. People shouldn't point a gun…

Or just tax bullets and gunpowder so they cost $10k per shot.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#610

Post by dublidu »

cypress66 wrote: post #504
la6472 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now it is hard to look at our kids faces and not feel the impact of this tragedy. I don’t know about everyone but for most people their kids lives are way more important than their right to bear military grade guns. If there is no perfect solution we have to live with a less than perfect solution. If the solution is to legally make it harder for people to access such guns then so be it.

As tragic as these events may be, the probability of your kids dying to a school shooting is still incredibly low, and a few orders of magnitude less than car accidents. Doing some quick math, it seems like it's around 100 to 1000 times more likely that some kid dies to some accident than a mass shooting. But people don't seem to worry 1000 times more about these accidents than school shootings. And it would actually…

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/22/1094364930/firearms-leading-c... Actually kids are more likely to die from guns than car accidents in America
Post reply on HN